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BL Premium reports that passenger bus operators have again increased their wage offer to unions, now to 6%, in a bid to strike a wage hike deal and avoid possible strike action.
The parties met last week under the auspices of the SA Road Passenger Bargaining Council (Sarpbc) where employers revised their wage offer from 5.3% to 6%. Employer organisations, including the SA Bus Employers Association (Sabea) and Commuter Bus Employers Organisation (Cobea), initially offered the unions a 2.5% wage increase, which they revised to 4.5% on 12 April. The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) and three other unions had been demanding an 11% wage increase. The 4.5% revised wage offer, which was made on the eve of the Easter weekend, saw unions agreeing to take it to their members for a mandate. Satawu’s Solomon Mahlangu reported that unions had met last week to consolidate their response to the 4.5% offer and a detailed response was subsequently sent employers. When the parties then met on Friday, the employers revised their wage offer from 4.5% to 5.3%. “During our engagement on Friday, we were very clear that we were not going to accept anything less than [the] inflation [rate]. The employers then revised their wage offer and moved to 6%,” Mahlangu reported. He went on to comment: “We have an agreement in principle regarding the revised 6% wage offer. From where we stand, we feel we can sell this offer to our members, because we are mandated by them. We then asked for a permission to take the 6% to our members for a mandate. We will meet again as parties on Tuesday afternoon.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page